Lip-reading smart speakers: Just what no one always wanted Your safe, cosy home is to become a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Don't worry, this is quite normal. It's how you will communicate with your next-generation smart devices. Some 14 years after the publication of NASA-linked research on sub-vocal speech recognition, the genre is currently enjoying a bit of a revival. …
Yes, soundboard is the right word for that part of a piano.
By the way, I own and use a pair of these bone conduction headphones. They're not exactly meant for music with much base, and they're not going to provide extremely high audio fidelity, but I enjoy them for listening to things while outdoors. I can listen to podcasts, music, or just the GPS's spoken directions, but if someone addresses me to ask me something or warn me that I'm about to do something risky, I still hear them. It is a very subjective thing, and plenty of people will not want that. Still, I get benefits from them.
Base - the main ingredient or fundamental part
Base - a predominate group of enthusiastic devotees
Base - the lower part of a heraldic field
Base - the starting point for an action
Base - a permanent military installation
Base - a number that is raised to a power
Base - the root of a word
Base - having a pH greater than 7
Base - cytosine, guanine, adenine, thymine, and uracil
Base - electrode that modulates the current flowing through a bipolar junction transistor according to the voltage applied
Bass - tasty fish
Bass - one of several musical instruments
Bass - lowest human singing tone
Bass - coarse, tough palm tree fiber
And yet somewhat strangely, when discussing any of the above in print, all y'all will know EXACTLY which one I'm talking about regardless of spelling thanks to context. Ain't English grand?
Living cheek to jowl in a high density slum, or student accommodation as it is often referred to, I came up with the idea of attaching a microphone to the inputs of each headphone speaker.
I could listen to my music at ear bleeding levels without disturbing my neighbours, while still being able to hear ambient sounds like fire alarms, telephones and knocking on my door.
This idea went further to incorporate a more focussed input, whereby microphones sat next to doors, phones and alarms thus allowing me to be aware of just the important stuff and not have to listen to flirty Sue's latest romantic entanglement thudding in through the ceiling.
And it went further, as I realised my first prototype would be ideal for a silent disco, where we could all listen to music at deafening levels, and still be able to talk to each other..... and listen to Sue's latest orgasmic conquest.
I was under the impression it was illegal for a BT speaker to produce notes below about 150Hz. My daughters got the ones they'd been begging for for xmas and yet they still come and use the jack socket to connect to my antique hifi which has two more instruments in the bass!
>it was illegal for a BT speaker to produce notes below about 150Hz
Why would that be a thing? A MiniRig2 will demonstrate that this is not a fact.
BT might not be the best for audio fidelity but given that most are listening to compressed streams anyway it is awfully convenient.
"Brilliant. These jaw rattling devices will be cutting edge and cool, so hipsters will want them for about 5 minutes until everyone has them, at which point we'll be right back to the analog vs digital debate and headphones will become retro chic."
I think the hipster's greatest problem will be how a computer can read facial muscles through a thick, lush beard.
Also absolutely dystopian. I was just saying earlier that if the Stasi & DDR still exisited that everyone would get free Smart speakers. Private Enterprise (IoT, Smart speakers, smart TV, Android, Windows 10) is saving the state a fortune. GCHQ, CIA, China & Russia must be delighted.
Well, the Stasi and DDR are not still here... maybe, though a lot of government agencies still are that have an interest in watching everyone. Maybe call them "junior" Stasi?
As a side note, there will not be anymore mumblings about the house between wife and husband as the mumbles will be immediately known to the other person. I suspect the divorce rate will increase and we'll need more lawyers.
So we end up with a win for government and win for lawyers. What's not to like?
Well with UK plod trialling face recognition on the streets in advance of and the absence off any regulatory control what do you expect?
At least here in Scotland the polis bowed to pressure and put their tech kiosks on ice while the regulations got sorted out. With not just the suspects but the victim's and witnesses tech being seized and copied now deterring some from making complaints due to the privacy violations involved (when you privacy has just been intimately violated having your tech and private life violated as well would indeed not feel an attractive option).
Wait for the smart toilet that analyses your regular output and automatically adjusts your Ocado/Amazon orders to reduce your alcohol intake or increase your porridge order for more roughage. Undoubtedly comes with an 'App' that nags you to go to the loo at certain times. Imagine trying to open your "Smart Fridge" only to find that it has locked itself under orders from the SmartLoo to stop you having any more booze.
Me too. It comes with variable options of the iTeenAger App that seem to leave the fridge door open, fail to tell you that all the milk has been drunk and has a immediate response to anything wrong by saying, "It wasn't me who did it".
Bit like having your fridge being run by a combination of Windows 10 and Norton 'Security'.
The interior of my car buzzes and rattles enough already, thank you. I only have to change down a gear and its armrests and air vents spontaneously break into what sounds – appropriately – like the middle bit of Kraftwerk's Autobahn.
Can you get it to play RadioActivity?
Can you get it to play RadioActivity?
That would not be as impressive as getting it to play morgenspaziergang
Will it translate teen "ugh" and "meeeer" sounds as they get up at 2pm?
Will it be used to record all the other things you think about like a sort of non-verbal thought reader? Isn't it bad enough already that you have to shout at a grubby plastic dome to call down the shopping gods because you can't be arsed to get out of your armchair? No? you would rather go round your house looking like you are becoming an early adopter of the BORG having your under-the-breath mutterings captured by the hive?
No now you will voluntarily submit to having all those "sub-vocal" communications recorded and potentially replayed where you used to say under your breath "what a ****wit ****** is!" while you were in the kitchen, now it can be innocently blurted out by the machines for you.
Who on earth wants this technology? Given that most AI's think a Scottish accent is a fatal speech impediment I don't hold out much confidence for the people who have genuine and often "non-standard" challenges with speech or worse ... grammar. Good luck Yoda with your "four hundred toilet rolls there will be master Luke".
And as for using parts of the car as a speaker diaphragm. Although technically possible, has anyone thought this through? Anything touching the dashboard will start to move, keys, coins, the pile of general matter in the glovebox will start to bounce to your tunez. Even for relatively modestly powered systems that don't require underlighting on your car can bounce coins 4-5 centimetres if placed on the diaphragm. think about it just for a moment. You are approaching the toll bridge, fumble around for the change, put it on the dash and it's fired back at you and all over the car like confetti while you are doing 70 in the wrong lane.
Try door panels at least, they are marginally more likely to make a stereo output without doing more than shaking the can of lemonade you put in the door pocket.
Just because these things can be done, does not make them sensible or useful.
What humans do, computers will be able to do it too someday. It's just a matter of time.
One of the things is to get a computer to believe it knows what being conscious feels like without actually being able to define what consciousness is. It will then declare "I'm pink therefore I'm Spam.", laugh inappropriately loudly in the cyberdoctor's waiting room while reading Douglas Adams, set its own screensaver to something that says "I am silently correcting your Python" and start self-medicating with inappropriate inputs.
At this point I'll book in with Dignitas as surplus to requirements.
Often when you are silently reading, these muscles move unconsciously anyway
Right, so when I'm chatting on the phone to someone and cooking at the same time, they're suddenly going to hear "finely chop the onion, dice the carrot and pepper, and cook until soft" in the middle of a discussion of the latest blockbuster film.
For the ones who like electronic music, there's an interesting set of covers of 'Enjoy the Silence'.
The CD is unsurprisingly titled Enjoy the Silence
Enjoy also the music!
I seem to remember Zaphod Beeblebrox sitting stock still listening to the Sub-Etha Waveband broadcasts on the Heart of Gold because the gesture-sensitive user interface would interpret the mere lifting of an eyebrow as a command to change channels.
This is why you have to be careful about thoughts speculating about the possibility of crossing your mind.
A long time ago I bought a "bone conduction" FM radio receiver in the US and shipped it back to Blighty. What I didn't reckon with was the crap reception of FM radio in the home country, even down in the Smoke where, according to the inhabitants, there is the only real civilization. To be fair, in the US you can usually expect to see your transmitter, if not right away then just around the next bend. At night the red aviation warning lights provide a comforting glow.
Cheers, Dabbsy, for all the wonderous 1980s memories.
Except for that one unfortunate year.
“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.”
In the early 70s I visited MOMA in New York.
One exhibit was a large wooden table with indentations for placing your elbows. Once in position, covering your ears with hands would reveal the music via you bones.
I remember another exhibit of a black painting by Ad Reinhardt. If you looked at it long enough, a smaller black square, slightly different value would slowly reveal itself.
Amazing "stuff" for young teenager from the U.S. Midwest to see & hear for the first time.
I'm one, and I'm laughing hysterically. Speech reading depends on context + partially-heard speech sounds + (to get accurate) knowing the other's individual speech quirks + prediction + likelihood-testing. What you SEE is integrated into a whole that includes all of the above; then there's a bit of trained neurological synesthesia and out comes hearing. Sort-of. My wife and I have fun when I tell her what I think she mumbled and she cracks up at the garble. And here I'm all trained and so forth. I'll believe a machine can do it when it successfully "hears" a mumbler with an accent, foreign-language word order and misphrasing and a droopy mustache covering half his mouth.
I bought one while on assignment in El Paso and had it shipped back, since it didn't arrive before I had to return. As I noted in another comment, it lacked the FM sensitivity to cope with the UK's less than stellar coverage. The bone conduction thing was oversold as well. I got better sound flipping it so the 2 inch speakers pointed up instead of down. And it ate batteries, in the days before rechargeables were available.
Nice looking cover sleeves, though.
that "sEMG" is distressingly close to "smeg!", an expletive which might well be heard more often if this gets implemented in my house (I will probably end up giving it a reprogramming it will never forget using a big axe)
I'll be going. The one with the Red Dwarf DVDs in the pocket please
' "smeg" isn't an expletive. It's a pseudo vulgarism.'
Whatever it is, I heard of someone using "SMEGMA" as his New York licence plate for years before he was rumbled. More recently an MD with the plate "XX XY" got a nasty letter saying that "XXXY" was offensive. Several appeals later, he got the plate back.
https://www.activistpost.com/2019/02/wireless-technology-ultra-convenient-endlessly-entertaining-criminally-instigated-terminally-pathological.html
Wireless Technology:Ultra Convenient. Endlessly Entertaining. Criminally Instigated.Terminally Pathological.
By Peter G. Tocci
The intent of this article is to show that wireless technology is, without remedy other than termination, one of the most devastating environmental and health threats—and threats to personal liberty—ever created.
Included is discussion of the criminal deceit employed by U.S. Government agencies, concealing awareness (beginning at least a decade prior to marketing) and ignoring/dismissing voluminous scientific evidence, of severe health impacts of radiation such as that emitted by wireless infrastructure and devices.
Peer-reviewed studies were published from the 1950’s up to the initial wireless rollout in Orwellian 1984 (with many thousands since). It follows that the industry also practiced deceit at the outset. It suppressed findings from, and attempted to discredit, a 5-year study project it was forced by circumstance to fund and initiate nearly a decade later (3G era).
Specific human-health effects of mobile telecom and WiFi are identified. Emphasized, however, is the far-reaching, quite probably fatal, threat to environment – all species, with the possible exception of some microorganisms...
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